The present invention relates to seat belt assemblies for a vehicle and, more particularly to, seat belt assemblies for a vehicle, having plural row of seats, suitable for protecting a passenger sitting on a center seat in an arbitrary row, except the last row.
Conventionally, a seat belt unit, for a rear seat, whose retractor(winder) is arranged within a rear fender is known (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-263005). In this type of seat belt unit, retractors are mounted on the tops of strut type suspension units which are located at the sides of the back of the rear seats (in a case where there are a plurality of separate backs of the respective seats, then at the right and the left sides of the rightmost and the leftmost backs, respectively), and anchors(slip guides) are mounted on the rear pillars which are located above the retractors. The direction of each webbing, pulled out from the retractor, is changed to the front lower oblique direction by the anchor. In this manner, the seat belt unit is installed for a rear seat.
As shown in FIG. 1, one known vehicle seating arrangement provides seats arranged in three rows, in the length direction of a vehicle, where the second row is designed for providing seats for three passengers, and seat or seats in third row are detachable or foldable, so as to provide room for freight by detaching or folding the seat or seats in the third row.
In a vehicle of this type, three-point support type seat belt units are provided for a right seat 21 and a left seat 22 in the third row. When a seat or seats in the third row are detached or folded, for instance, the seat belt unit or units for the third row become useless.
Further, three-point support type seat belt units are also provided for a right seat 11 and a left seat 13 in the second row, however, no seat belt unit or a two-point support type seat belt unit is generally provided for a center seat 12.
However, it is preferable to provide a three-point support type seat belt unit for the center seat 12 for a security purpose to protect a passenger seating there.
Accordingly, it is considered to provide a three-point support type seat belt unit for the center seat 12 within either right or left fender. In such a case, however, since the retractors of the seat belt units for the right seat 11 and the left seat 13 are already mounted in both of the right and left fenders, it is difficult to realize the above arrangement due to problems of space and strength for mounting an extra retractor in the fender.
Further, different types of vehicles, using vehicle bodies of the same type, are manufactured, such as a van having two rows of seats, and a station wagon having three rows of seats. When three rows of seats are arranged, it is tended to provide no seat belt unit for the center seat of the second row, whereas, when two rows of seats are installed, it is tended to provide a three-point support type seat belt unit for the center seat of the rear row. However, in such cases, it is necessary to change the mounting positions of seat belt units for the different types of vehicles, which increases manufacturing cost.
Furthermore, there is a station wagon which allows a user to change the number of rows of seats, between two and three, depending upon user utilization. Accordingly, it is necessary to design an arrangement of seat belt units by taking all the possible seat arrangements into consideration, which increases the cost of a vehicle.